Happy Halloween!
“Everyone must decide,” said Martin Luther King Jr., “whether to walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.”
“To be a person of faith is to make a choice to center one’s life around the deeper center of gravity we call God, and the greater good of all creation, rather than primarily around one’s personal gain and benefit,” writes Margaret Silf in Simple Faith. “It is to act with lovingkindness, to ourselves and to one another. It sounds easy and obvious, but in practice it is very difficult to maintain this deeper focus. One problem we have in turning the ideal into the real is that we try to leap across miles rather than navigate inches. We are asked not to save the world but only to take each next step with regard to this deeper center that holds us in balance with the Golden Rule.” (23)
Daily we are invited to live the words of Jesus. “So then, in everything treat others the same way you want them to treat you, for this is [the essence of] the Law and the [writings of the] Prophets” (Matthew 7:12, AMP).
“To be a person of faith is to believe that you can make a difference and to work at making that happen,” encourages Silf. “It’s about turning the ideal into the real. And we get to do that in the small things that happen each day. We have a choice about those thoughtless comments, destructive put-downs, sarcastic rejoinders, times when we walk past a needy neighbor without offering to help, times when we say nothing to challenge an injustice. These things happen every day, and they are in our own power to change.”
“Just as surely, we can choose to offer an encouraging comment when we might have said nothing, to give time and a listening ear when someone close to us is hurting, to take some small step to do what we can . . . to live more simply, to speak a word of tolerance and understanding where there is strife. There are opportunities for these things every day, and they are ours to use or not use. The currency of change is in our own back pockets. A person of faith is one who chooses to spend that currency, moment by moment, by making ordinary choices that tip the scales toward the greater good.” (39)
Reaching out to make a difference, what small loving thing we might do next?
…Sue…
